WHAT’S IN A SEMINAR?

by
Jim Harnish, NSCC Faculty Emeritus

The Book Seminar is the
primary mode of learning in a coordinated studies program. The seminar
in coordinated studies is what sets this class
apart from other types of classes. So what is a seminar? How
do you prepare
for a seminar? What and how do you learn in a seminar?

A seminar
brings together an interested group of learners who have done some
preparation, including having read, thought about and written
about
a particularly good book. This solitary preparation should
include marking the text for interesting passages, reviewing those
sections,
organizing
one’s thoughts on paper and producing significant questions
that need to be explored.

In the seminar the group
is responsible for exploring the text and probing the ideas people
have brought
from their individual
reading
of the text.
It is a time to "mine" the text, to work it over
as a group, to think outloud about it, and to test some ideas
against the group.
For example, the following might be overheard in a seminar: "I
don’t
know if this is valid but it seems that the author is saying...." Or: "Here
on page l5 at the bottom of the page the author says [read
from text]. This seems to be his most important point. What
I think he is saying
is..."

A seminar is not an arena
for performance to show you’ve read the
text or a reporting session to read your papers. It’s
more than a class discussion and it definitely is not a
time for a lecture
from
an expert who will tell the group what they should get
from this book. There may be places for those activities
but not
in seminar.
Seminar
is a special time for a unique intellectual activity. The
exchange of ideas is focused on a source (a book, play
or film).

A good way to keep focused
on the text at hand is to respond
to the following three questions:

1. WHAT IS THE AUTHOR
SAYING? —Point to the exact
page and paragraph so everyone can read along.

2.
WHAT DOES THE AUTHOR MEAN? — Explain the passage
in your own words.

3. WHY IS THIS POINT IMPORTANT?--Agree
or disagree, or compare it to other ideas

Make sure you keep
these three questions distinct, because each question forces the
group to discuss
the text in
different ways. The first
one asks for the facts. The second searches
for concepts behind the exact
words, or inferences between the lines. The
third seeks a synthesis — your
own interpretation, reaction, or insight.

Sometimes
the seminar will be focused and free-flowing. Sometimes it will
be searching, questioning,
going deeper to understand
ideas from
a book, from others or from within yourself.
Sometimes the group will come to some conclusions.
Sometimes
it will seem
like a series of disconnected
activities, like a pop corn popper, with
ideas jumping around the table without clear connections.
In either
case, the
seminar is a place to
discover new ideas, to re-look at old ideas,
or to develop insightful connections among
ideas.

The teacher’s role
in a seminar is, at best, to be a model of an experienced
learner; not to be
the focus of attention, or the
authority
who will tell you what you should learn.
Don't let the faculty member give a lecture
in seminar! Everyone
must take responsibility for
co-leading and sharing ideas.

Participants
must learn to actively listen to each other and speak openly to
the whole
group,
not
just to the
leader. The
group must learn
to be
sensitive to the needs of all. The natural
talkers must be disciplined in order
to learn how to
listen better.
The quiet
people must learn
to be more assertive. They must resolve
to share their insights, even if
they are not comfortable doing that.
Shyness is neither a virtue nor is it an excuse
to withhold your thoughts
from
the group.
Everyone
should speak during each seminar.

Speak
in turn and allow others to finish their thoughts. Do not interrupt
one
another. Silent
periods are
OK. Silence gives
time to process thoughts,
so try to become comfortable with it.
Address an idea or argument by connecting
it to
what someone
else has
said.
Summarize the
point you
are responding to, then provide your
own idea.

Finally if things are not
going well, it is our responsibility individually
and
collectively to put things right.
Keep taking the pulse of the
group and make adjustments so that
everyone can
have the opportunity to have
a meaningful intellectual experience
in seminar. The best question to
ask is not "how am I doing," but
rather "how
is our seminar going?"

Leaving
the seminar with more questions
than you came with, or being somewhat
confused and overwhelmed
with
new ideas,
is a sign your
seminar is working. You will come
to realize in seminar that a great
book
is
not something you read once and
then feel satisfied you have learned all
you can
learn
from it.
Rather, a great
book is
one which stimulates
continuing intellectual curiosity,
and which demands from you a re-reading
and
a continuing
discussion
of it — maybe for the rest
of your life.